Anti-Prayut, indy protesters clash with police at same spot again

By Thai Newsroom Reporters

INDEPENDENT STREET PROTESTERS CLASHED with crowd-control police again today (Aug 18) at the same spot near the army barracks which houses Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha’s residence on Vibhavadi Rangsit Road.

The anti-Prayut protesters, many riding on motorcycles and putting on crash helmets, gathered at Sam Liam Din Daeng intersection and walked down the road toward the front gates of the First Infantry Regiment barracks but were strongly resisted by the police who fired tear gas to deter their moves.

Some of the adolescent demonstrators kicked or threw back the tear gas canisters toward the police who remained behind empty cargo containers down the road while others hurled firecrackers and flares toward the police, including those on a bridge leading to the Din Daeng expressway.

Read earlier reports: Anti-Prayut protesters in brief standoff with police outside National Police HQ

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The repeated clashes between the anti-Prayut protesters and police lasted about an hour before the former, many riding on motorcycles, began to slip away from the scene while the latter gradually secured the area which was getting dark in the early evening.

The independent protesters, who apparently acted independently of any organised activist groups, were believed to keep coming back to the same spot on a daily basis in defiance of the police. 

Former Red Shirt leader Nattawut Saikua admitted he could not talk these adolescents into stopping such provocative moves toward Prayut’s home in the army barracks and said some had apparently intended to fight the powers in very physical sense as opposed to peaceful fashion in which he said he has organised his anti-Prayut street campaign.

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Scenes of today’s clash between protesters and riot police at Din Daeng intersection. All photos: Thai Rath